Colragotianuns to teh casls fo 210717!
Lehigh’s graduates will be lucky to process their thoughts and emotions May 22 half as clearly as that jumbled gibberish. It’s inevitable.
But remembering one day that has largely symbolic meaning is not the important takeaway of a college career. If we only think about the big days in our lives, it can feel like time passes us by as we check off each milestone and wonder what on earth happened in between them.
It’s time to remember what on earth did happen.
Scene 1: Orientation week. You’ve given fraternity parties a couple of tries already, and you’ve been texted some addresses for tonight. You assemble a crew, and once you make it into the party, you don’t just hear the music bumping, you feel it. As you walk downstairs into the basement, the lights and the faces come into focus and you have butterflies in your stomach. End scene.
Never in your life will you experience this moment again.
Scene 2: Sophomore year. It’s 6 p.m. and your alarm goes off. Inches away from snoozing it and extending your nap, you stop yourself. You promised your friend you’d be there to see their a cappella concert. Reluctantly, you drag yourself out of bed and make the trek to Zoellner. As you take your seat, you exaggeratedly blink your hungover eyes to see your friend poke their head out from behind the curtain, looking for you. End scene.
Never in your life will you experience this moment again.
Scene 3: Senior year. You just sacrificed your whole Saturday to apply for jobs. You missed the tailgates, you missed the game and you missed the post game meal with your friends. While you wait the three and a half minutes it takes for your Easy Mac to heat in the microwave, you text your best friend asking if they want to come over. Before the Easy Mac is done, your friend responds “I’m on my way.” As you sit down to eat, you aimlessly scroll on your phone, knowing company is never more than a few moments away. End scene.
Never in your life will you experience this moment again.
It’s not that special moments are no longer within grasp after graduation transitions Lehigh students away from South Bethlehem and toward a future life. It’s that the only way to truly appreciate them is to memorialize them as in-between moments and let go of the urge to glorify the major events.
For example, does anyone who made it to Easton for this year’s Lehigh-Lafayette game remember the final score? Maybe a couple, but when you tell the story to your kids, don’t forget to highlight the euphoria of completely disregarding the cops and piling over the edge of the bleachers to storm the field as one brown and white swarm.
But there’s one important distinction to be made. Focusing on the little moments in life does not mean identifying them in real time. Lifelogging has been tried before, and its futility provides evidence for why we should appreciate the fluidity life brings us and not its rigidness.
Your cherished experiences are supposed to come naturally — like walking into a party, or waking up to see a concert, or inviting your best friend over after a difficult day.
Who knows, you might be having the biggest little moment of your college career as you read this, nostalgia flooding your heart.
Don’t worry about it though. Just let the little moments happen.
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